Channel Islands

From Wikipedia – Five of the eight Channel Islands are protected, and half of the park’s area is underwater. The islands have a unique Mediterranean ecosystem originally settled by the Chumash people. They are home to over 2,000 species of land plants and animals, and 145 are unique to them, including the island fox. Ferry services offer transportation to the islands from the mainland.

• Established: 3/5/1980
• Annual Visitors: 366,250
• Size: 249,561 acres

Pacific Crest Trail Hike / Visit with Friends 4/5/21

We stayed in North Palm Springs in a valley of thousands of wind turbines. They also had a wind advisory that night. Whoa, hold on to your hats! Those winds are great for generating electricity but holy cow, Rangeley was running all over trying to catch the plastic bag blowing to his right, tree branches “attacking” from his left and other debris surprising us from behind!

We headed out Monday morning (4/5/21) into Whitewater Preserve, just a short drive from our hotel. It is a 2,211-acre free access park. We went for a walk on the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT)! Gary through-hiked the Appalachian Trail (AT), all 2,100+ miles in a single hike, and this summer he will do 1000 miles of the AT, completing a section-hike of the entire route from Georgia to Maine (hiking the entire route but not in one consecutive hike). When through hikers complete all three of the longest trails in the US: the PCT, AT and the Continental Divide Trail (CDT), they call it a Triple Crown. Rangeley, Gary and I have hiked a few miles on all three trails (we all hiked a bit of the CDT and AT last fall on our last national park tour), so jokingly, Gary said we all completed our own Triple Crown! : )  Enjoy the slide show of our hike!

Side note: I saw a billboard on the way to Channel Islands that read: Restore your inside, outside. We so agree. Especially during all these shutdowns this last year. We encourage you all to get outside! It does wonders for your insides…your morale, health and attitude!

We met up with dear lifelong friends, in Orange, CA, at the Lazy Dog Restaurant. I mention it, not only because we had a fabulous time with them, but the restaurant has a “Dog Menu”! As my daughter-in-law said: “that’s progressive!”. We ordered raw hamburg, cooked rice and steamed veggies for Rangeley (he’s been on a raw DIY diet since 8 weeks of age). It was $5 and we can officially say that Rangeley has eaten out at a restaurant! Our meals were great too, the patio seating welcoming and fun was had by all. (see pics).

Channel Islands 4/6/2021

This morning, Tuesday 4/6/21, we drove to Channel Islands National Park. Well, we visited the Robert J. Largomarsino Visitor Center in Ventura, CA…that’s it. Sadly, we knew in our planning of this 14 national park drive that we were unable to actually go to any of the islands. We went to the dog friendly (on leash) beach right there at the visitor center and Rangeley LOVED playing in the waves. Of course there was a perfect stick for him laying on the beach as well. I picked up the info to book staying over night out on the islands and the ferry schedule for a well anticipated return trip without the pup.

A bit about this unique national park. It is only accessible by boat or small plane…. Five of the eight islands spanning 160 miles off the shores of southern California, and their surrounding underwater treasures, are protected by Channel Islands National Park. So named for the deep-water channels that separate them from the mainland. Santa Barbara Channel is to their north and the Pacific Ocean is their south. The first humans on these very biodiverse lands have been dated back 13,000 years! But the action of protecting these bodies of land began in 1938. One can swim, hike, kayak, and more, while visiting the islands. Gary and I plan to take advantage of all the recreational activities when we return for a more proper visit.

Our next adventure took us to the Boathouse, a restaurant at Hendry’s Beach in Santa Barbara. What a great find! They have an off-lead dog beach to the south of the restaurant and Rangeley not only loved the waves and salty air but he was a perfect gentleman with the other dogs, stayed nearby and came when called! Rangeley loves any water but this was Rangeley’s icing on the aqua cake! We chose to do take out at the Boathouse, after our fist walk on the beach, ordering a burger for Gary and a lightly seared Ahi sandwich with avocado, cole slaw and pineapple for me. We then were persuaded to return to the off-lead side of the beach by our 77 lb., 11-month-old swimming machine! We all had a fabulous time with our toes in the sand, soaking up the sun, enjoying the 60+ degree weather and walking off a good lunch.

As you may have gathered from today’s journal being more about getting to and from the parks and our spontaneous or planned out adventures making our day, we hope you are encouraged to explore not just the national parks but the journey getting, being and leaving there!

Next park: Pinnacle. Although it is not a very dog friendly park and quite small in comparison, we are excited about the wrong turns we may take, the farm lands, fruit stands and vineyards we may come across and the seaside impromptu stops at beaches on our way to, through and after the parks!

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